An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act
The bill materially reduces internal barriers and accelerates major projects with a single-window authorization, advancing prosperity, productivity, and investment while retaining explicit safety confirmations for high‑risk sectors and consultation duties. Risks remain around transparency, potential lowest‑common‑denominator standards, and the narrowed application of parts of the Impact Assessment Act, but these can be mitigated through clear criteria, public reasons, and outcome‑based safeguards.
How will the government prevent the deeming of favourable determinations under section 6 from eroding environmental protection and safety, and will it publish all underlying risk assessments and regulator confirmations before issuing any consolidated authorization document?
Given that orders adding projects to Schedule 1 are exempt from the Statutory Instruments Act, what quantitative criteria and economic impact analysis will Cabinet publish to justify that a project is in the national interest and to ensure decisions are not arbitrary?
What safeguards will ensure mutual recognition does not trigger a race to the bottom on standards for goods, services, and occupational licensing, and will the minister commit to clear, public exceptions where a higher safety-equivalency floor is necessary to protect Canadians?
Reduces internal trade and labour barriers and accelerates nationally significant projects, supporting growth, higher incomes, and long-run prosperity.
Mutual recognition and a single-window authorization for major projects cut duplicative approvals and speed decisions, challenging bureaucratic inertia while retaining key safety and consultation checks.
Internal trade liberalization and expedited approvals for critical infrastructure can raise productivity, reduce time-to-build, and enhance competitiveness.
Faster national-interest projects (e.g., energy, transportation) and smoother interprovincial supply chains can expand capacity to reach global markets, even if exports are not explicitly referenced.
Enhanced regulatory certainty, accelerated timelines, and mutual recognition improve investor confidence and facilitate resource and industrial development.
Consolidating federal authorizations into one document and removing duplicative federal barriers can lower administrative costs and improve service standards, though execution quality will determine net savings.
No tax measures are included; impacts on work and innovation come via regulatory streamlining rather than fiscal reform.
Targets system-wide internal trade and labour mobility and creates a fast lane for nationally significant projects—large-scale levers rather than minor tweaks.
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